Xin Jiang

Biography

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. My research focuses on behavioral and experimental economics. I am particularly interested in understanding people’s preference and heuristics in information acquisition and group affiliation. In my job market paper, we have designed a laboratory experiment to study what response time reveals about the truth, considering the role of heuristics in truth acquisition. I'll be on the 2023-2024 job market.

Job Market Paper Abstract

"Examining the Impact of Response Time on Deceptive Communication"

The inclusion of response time indicators has become a common feature in the contemporary landscape of social media sites. What private information does the response time carry when there is a conflict of interest, and do people use it to improve their welfare? We design a modified cheap talk game to study the intricate interplay between response time, private information, and its influence on users' well-being, tailored to situations where truth discovery is time consuming. Our investigation uncovers a noteworthy sender inclination towards reluctance to lie. With such preference, the private information reveals the consideration process, instead of the mechanical discovering process. We find that the longer the response time, the less credible the message. However, receivers are unable to extract substantial welfare gains through the response time. Furthermore, when senders are aware of the availability of their response time, they are able to manipulate it successfully.